In previous elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast Arab voters as a peril, warning they were ‘heading to the polling stations in droves.’ He threatened two years ago to mount cameras at the polls in Arab communities — a move critics said was meant to suppress turnout — and he has disparaged elected Arab politicians as ‘supporters of terrorism.’
Now, as the country prepares for elections on Tuesday, Netanyahu is the one asking Arab Israelis to come out in droves — to vote for him.
(The Washington Post, March 18, 2021)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Netanyahu is only aping the chutzpah of former US president Donald Trump courting Latinos after infamously slurring them as migrating drug mules, rapists, and murderers. After all, despite all that, a shocking number of Latinos still voted for him.
But Trump’s record of xenophobia and racism with respect to Latinos seems benevolent compared with Netanyahu’s with respect to Arabs. This is why it would take mass self-abnegation the likes of which the world has never seen for Arabs to ape Latinos and vote for Bibi to any statistically significant degree.
I have been decrying Netanyahu’s bigoted rhetoric and antics for years. I refer you to such commentaries as “PM Netanyahu Hails Israel as ‘Only for the Jewish People’… And Rep Omar’s the Problem…?” March 12, 2019, “Netanyahu Deporting Blacks to Preserve White Character of Jewish State,” January 4, 2018, and “Israel Votes to Become More Like Apartheid South Africa,” March 18, 2015, which includes this reference to the trademark election rhetoric at issue:
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Election Day in Israel yesterday was full of surprises; none more so than the desperate declarations and exhortations Bibi Netanyahu made to get his supporters to the polls.
He not only declared that there will never be a Palestinian state as long as he’s prime minister, but also exhorted right-wing Jews to help him stay in power to honor this declaration:
The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are going in droves to the polls. Left-wing NGOs are bringing them on buses.
(The Jerusalem Post, March 18, 2015)
Imagine the outrage (national and international) if Mitt Romney had done something like this on Election Day in 2012 (i.e., exhorted white voters to get to the polls because black voters were going in droves, putting his plan to ‘take back our [white] government’ in danger…).
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So here’s to voters in Israel emulating those in the United States by ousting Netanyahu from office so that, like Trump, he too can spend more time in court – fighting losing battles to escape his long-awaited fate … in prison. Birds of a feather, may they flock together in this respect for the rest of their lives.
But, having been burned once, I am twice shy. Because here is how I previewed the last election in the above-cited commentary from March 12, 2019:
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Like Trump, Netanyahu is banking on his political rhetoric distracting voters from looming criminal indictments, which pose a far greater threat to his career, if not his freedom, than the Arab Israelis he’s scapegoating.
Unlike Trump, Netanyahu will face a truly formidable opponent, namely Israeli war hero Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party. Gantz demonstrated this during a recent national address when he
- ordered Netanyahu to do the honorable thing and resign in light of the Israeli attorney general’s decision to indict him for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust; and
- yelled at Netanyahu for embracing Trump and mocked him as a wannabe Trump, namely a pampered, trust-fund coward blustering as a Mafia don.
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So all I’m going to say this time is, do the right thing, Israel. Stop Bibi!
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